MARTINSVILLE, Va. — For the second straight year, Virginia native Denny Hamlin saw his championship dreams come to an end at his home state short track of Martinsville Speedway.
Although the driver from Chesterfield, Virginia grew up closer to Richmond Raceway, the other short track in the Old Dominion State is important to Hamlin.
Five of his 51 career NASCAR Cup Series wins have come at Martinsville, but his last win at the paperclip-shaped flat short track came in 2015.
Last year, Hamlin was cruising to the Championship 4 before Ross Chastain pulled his “Hail Melon” last-lap move by driving it into the third turn wall, flooring the accelerator and driving 100 miles an hour faster through the final two turns than any other driver on the track.
He beat Hamlin by about one foot at the line for the position that knocked the Joe Gibbs Racing driver out of the title race and sent Chastain into NASCAR’s Final Four.
During Sunday’s Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway, it wasn’t a miraculous move that cost Hamlin his shot at advancing into next week’s championship race at Phoenix Raceway.
He just ran out of points.
Hamlin finished third in the No. 11 FedEx Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing but missed the cut for the final transfer position by eight points as Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron finished 14th.
Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney won the race ahead of Aric Almirola of Stewart-Haas Racing.
Hamlin followed, but even though he won Stage One and finished second in Stage Two, the 19 extra points wasn’t enough to get him into next week’s championship decider.
He entered 17 points below the cut line and leaves eight points out.
It wasn’t anything dramatic that curtailed his efforts on Sunday, but it was a mechanical failure one week earlier at Homestead-Miami Speedway that doomed his chance at a championship.
“The mechanical failure last week with the power steering, that sealed our fate,” Hamlin said on pit road after the race ended. “Really proud of this whole FedEx Toyota team for showing up today when we really needed to, having probably a mid 50-point day. They did great. They did absolutely great.
“The 12 car (Blaney) was the best car today, so congrats to them. All the Final Four that made it. It’s going to be great.
“Hate we’re not in it with our FedEx Camry. Definitely, I was happy with the performance we had today. Really all around.
“Just in the Round of 8 you can’t have one bad week. Unfortunately, mechanical failure takes us from running really well to in the 30s.
“That’s it.”
Hamlin led a race-high 156 laps. Blaney was next with 145 laps in front, but that included the final 23 all the way to the checkered flag.
Down, but not defeated, Hamlin promises to end his season in a flourish.
“Man, I just want to get ready and go try to win next week,” Hamlin said. “I still love it so much because every week I feel like I got a shot to win. That’s what fuels my passion, even at my age, to keep doing this, is I’m with the team that I got that gives me such fast cars every week and gives me a chance to continue to pile on those stats before the end of my career.
“It’s not over by any means. We got a long way to go.
“I’m really happy about the year in general. I thought substantially faster this year at all racetracks than what we were last year.”
Hamlin has never won a NASCAR Cup Series championship, but that doesn’t diminish his place in the 75-year history of NASCAR. He won’t win a championship in 2023, but it doesn’t tarnish his record.
He has also become a bit more philosophical.
“It’s racing, right? This is the playoffs,” Hamlin said. “You got a three-race season. The 12 car (Blaney) showed up this round, right? He deserves to be in that Final Four. The performance they had today was phenomenal. I’m just happy for those guys.
“One more week.”